Vasily Chuikov

Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov (February 12, 1900 – March 18, 1982) was a Soviet lieutenant general in the Red Army during World War II, commander of the 62nd Army during the Battle of Stalingrad, twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1944, 1945), and after the war a Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Quotes

• Every German soldier must be made to feel that he is living under the muzzle of a Russian gun.
  • Quoted in "199 Days: The Battle for Stalingrad" - Page 142 - by Edwin Palmer Hoyt - History - 1999

• There are those who propose that both sides remove all their forces from Germany. That's a silly idea. The Germans hate us; we couldn't think of removing our forces from Germany.
  • Quoted in "president reagan and the world" - Page 251 - by Eric J. Schmertz, Natalie Datlof, Alexej Ugrinsky, Hofstra University - 1997

• The Germans underestimated our artillery. And they underestimated the effectiveness of our infantry against their tanks. This battle showed that tanks forced to operate in narrow quarters are of limited value; they're just guns without mobility. In such conditions nothing can take the place of small groups of infantry, properly armed, and fighting with utmost determination. I don't mean barricade street fighting—there was little of that—but groups converting every building into a fortress and fighting for it floor by floor and even room by room. Such defenders cannot be driven out either by tanks or planes. The Germans dropped over a million bombs on us but they did not dislodge our infantry from its decisive positions. On the other hand, tanks can be destroyed from buildings used as fortresses.
  • Quoted in "the story of the second world war" - Page 167 - by henry steele commager

• I would not have believed such an inferno could open up on earth. Men died but they did not retreat.
  • Quoted in "Europe in Our Time, 1914 to the Present" - Page 571 - by Robert Reinhold Ergang - Europe - 1953

• He ordered us to stand fast and save Stalingrad. So we knew then that it was 'do or die.' We could not retreat.
  • Quoted in "Unconditional Surrender" - Page 139 - by Everett Holles - 1945

• Our units were tired. There were many whining pessimists in the army. I threw these panicky people out of the army right away and set to work. I told our men we could not retreat beyond the Volga... I believe that nowhere else in this war was there such bloody hand-to-hand combat. Nowhere else were bayonets and hand grenades used so widely as in Stalingrad...Lieutenant General Rodimtzev's division was first to arrive there and received the fierce German blow. Rodimtzev told me: 'We will fight to the last man, but we shall not leave the city.' ...Our soldiers had only one idea. Stalin had ordered us not to retreat.
  • Quoted in "They Shall Not Sleep" - Page 318 - by Leland Stowe - 1944

• The heavy casualties, the constant retreat, the shortage of food and munitions, the difficulty of receiving reinforcements... all this had a very bad effect on morale. Many longed to get across the Volga, to escape the hell of Stalingrad.
  • Quoted in "Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army" - Page 174 - by Catherine Merridale - History - 2007

• The battle of Kursk... the forcing of the Dnieper... and the liberation of Kiev, left Hitlerite Germany facing catastrophe.
  • Quoted in "The fall of Berlin" - by Vasily Ivanovich Chuĭkov - 1968

Quotes about Chuikov

• The engagements in which Zhukov won his reputation were so massive that, inevitably, many outstanding Soviet military men were involved- either under Zhukov's command or in coordinated and associated movements. There was then, and there continued for years to be, a raging competition for military glory in these engagements. Deep lines of political cleavage and quarrels also underlay the military disputes. Not only military glory was involved; political intrigue, intra-Party quarrels, high-level Kremlin politics were at issue. The principal military rivals of Zhukov were his fellow marshals, Ivan S. Konev, Rodion Malinovsky, V. I. Chuikov, A. I. Yeremenko, Semyon Timonshenko, and to a lesser extent men like K. K. Rokossovsky, V. D. Sokolovsky, and the staff chiefs, A. M. Vasilevsky, Boris Shaposhnikov and, later on, S. M. Shtemenko. Rivals of a different category were Stalin's cronies, men like Voroshilov and Budenny, and police generals such as L. Z. Mekhlis and G. I. Kulik.
  • Harrison E. Salisbury (editor), Introduction to Marshal Zhukov's Greatest Battles (New York: Harper & Row, 1969) by Georgy Zhukov, translated from Russian by Theodore Shabad, p. 14-15